Ever since the invention of the cathrod ray tube or video tube as it is commonly called today, there has been a recognition that images that appear thereon are transitory and that frequently there is more information or intelligence in the video image than can be discerned by a momentary study thereof before a fresh image presenting new information appears on the tube.
The solution to the problems of the transitory nature of video image is simply to take a photograph of the video image and then study the same later. The evolution of the photographic process has been as one would expect from very simple to highly complex.
Typical of the simplest approach is that shown in the McGroth U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,847 which simply provides a camera having an opening adjacent a lens such that the opening is sized to mate with an oscilloscope screen. The camera of Groth is also provided with a single film sheet film cassette. The McGroth approach provides a single image on a single film sheet.
There followed McGroth, in an evolutionary manner the idea of a multiple-image oscilloscope camera which is typified by the Yasillo U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,310. Yasillo provides for the placement of a plurality of images at selected locations on a single sheet of film by means of a stepping motor coupled to a rotating mirror and lens. Rotation of the mirror resulted in the deflection of an image to a desired location on the sheet of film.
In the field of medical science and the diagnositc study of the human body, the advent and development of scanning devices such as a gama ray, utltrasonic, and computerized tomographic images of x-ray irradiation, to name a few, have brought about the need for a dozen or more images to be provided on a single sheet of film.
To meet the need of multiple imaging just noted a number of technical approaches have been conceived and implemented, each one of which is significantly more complex than the invention to be described hereinafter.
In the Barney U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,729 the positioning of the image on the film is determined by the vertical and lateral positioning of a lens relative to perpendicular x and y axes corresponding to the length and width of the film. The lens is provided with a shutter for controlling the passage of light there through, and a pair of reversing electric motors are provided for selectively positioning the lens along the x and y axes.
The Fermaglech et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,895 which presents its invention as an improvement over the complex universally moveable lens moving arrangement of the type shown in the Barney patent just reviewed, provides for a multiple of differently strategically positioned lenses that are operationally available and are separately selected for operation based on position to correspondingly provide an appropriately positioned image on a film sheet.
The current state-of-the art appears to be best represented by Japanese Pat. No. 0060937 issued May 8, 1980 in which patent the idea of multiple, diffently strategically position lenses in a fixed array has combined therewith the idea of a moveable video tube in cooperation with the fixed array.
The invention to be described hereinafter advances the art further by doing away with the need for multiple lens arrays of Fermaglech et al and the Japanese Patent or the complex universally moveable lens apparatus of Barney while simultaneously reducing complexity, size and weight and providing multiple image capability for a single sheet film that matches in all respects and exceeds in yet other ways that which has been done before.
In conjunction with the heretofore noted problems that are attendant to automatic multi-photo imaging systems is that of providing single sheets of film into the system.
It has long been recognized that it is desireable to have a source of single film sheets stored in a film pack cassettes or magazine where the magazine may be inserted into a camera or other controlled film exposure device.
There have been many notable contributions to the this art typical of which is that shown in the Whall U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,188; Erlichman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,032 and Columbus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,134. A feature common to film packs, cassettes or magazines of the type described in the patents has been the need to provide a biasing means usually in the form of a spring element positioned beneath a stack of single film sheets to thereby urge the stack of film sheets in a direction that ensures the next, single film sheet to be removed is in position to be fed into the camera. In the Whall patent this feature is best seen in FIG. 7 where an unreference bow spring is shown positioned beneath a stack of film. In the Erlichman patent the film biasing means 96, 112, 114, 122, 126 and 134 is best observed in FIG. 8 of the patent's drawings.
The Columbus film pack is likewise provided with a film biasing means in the form of a complex spring member 36 best seen in FIG. 5 of the patent.
The Tomato U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,465 and Japanese Pat. No. 006937 illustrate a multi sheet film cassette in which there is no spring biased means beneath the stack of film sheets but as can be seen in both of these patents a complex vacuum pickup head arrangement is called for to remove the single film sheets.
In contrast to the prior art described above the multi-sheet film magazines of this invention requires no film stack biasing member nor does the magazine of this invention require vacuum devices to lift single film sheets.